MSO So Good: McLaren 570GT by MSO Concept to Grace Pebble Beach Lawn

McLaren Special Operations, or MSO for short, will pull the cover off of its latest concept at this week’s Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

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The McLaren 570GT by MSO concept is an elegant take on the British sports car maker’s “affordable” grand touring car, adding a number of design, technology, and luxury features that McLaren claims will be made available to MSO customers in the future.

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Let’s start with the obvious: The 570GT by MSO concept is white hot. Bathed in Pearl White paint, MSO’s Piano Black package coats the side scoops, front and rear lower fascias, and wheels in shiny black paint. Oddly, exposed carbon-fiber side skirts with 570GT badges break from the black and white paint theme. Peeking out from the concept’s rear end is the exhaust heat shield, “finished in a golden titanium nitride tint” because of course it is. The shield protects a titanium exhaust system that McLaren claims is 30 percent lighter than the standard 570GT’s steel unit.

Finally, MSO fits its 570GT concept with an electro-chromic roof. Similar to Mercedes-Benz’s Magic Sky Control, the 570GT by MSO concept’s glass roof panel’s level of clarity can be adjusted via the car’s touch-sensitive headliner to one of five settings that range from opaque to nearly clear. The electro-chromic roof is still in development, per McLaren, so don’t expect it to appear on your run-of-the-mill 570GT any time soon.

Like the production 570GT, the McLaren 570GT by MSO concept is powered by a 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 with 562 horsepower that hides beneath a glass-covered storage area that McLaren calls the “Touring Deck.” Part of the company’s 2017 model lineup, the 570GT starts at $201,450, with forthcoming MSO items, such as those seen on this concept car, upping the transaction price.